What are Noh performers called?
There are four major categories of Noh performers: shite, waki, kyōgen, and hayashi. Shite (仕手, シテ). Shite is the main protagonist, or the leading role in plays. In plays where the shite appears first as a human and then as a ghost, the first role is known as the mae-shite and the later as the nochi-shite.
Are all Noh players female?
You may think that the Noh community is a society of the male sex, like the Kabuki community, because it was once supported by samurai families. There are currently more than 1,400 members registered in the Nohgaku Performers’ Association, of which about 200 are female members.
Who are the characters in Noh?
All performers in noh are male.
- Shite – the leading character. Depending on the play, the shite may act as a holy old man, a deity, a demon, a spirit or a living man.
- Waki – the supporting actor.
- Hayashi – the musicians.
- Jiutai – the chorus.
- Koken – stage attendants.
What is the difference between Noh and kabuki?
“Noh is a very traditional performance, but kabuki is something that’s for ordinary people.” In noh, performers wear a mask, but in kabuki, they use face paint. Kabuki is also more exaggerated – for example, while both employ wigs, the ones used in kabuki are a lot longer and more voluminous.
What is the difference between noh and Kabuki?
What kind of acting is used in noh dramas?
Noh—its name derived from nō, meaning “talent” or “skill”—is unlike Western narrative drama. Rather than being actors or “representers” in the Western sense, Noh performers are simply storytellers who use their visual appearances and their movements to suggest the essence of their tale rather than to enact it.
What kind of acting is used in Noh dramas?
What is a Noh mask?
Noh masks are carved from single piece of wood painted with natural pigments. Mask represents age, gender and social ranking of human or nonhuman being like animal, demon or divine. All of the masks have a distinctive name.